Oblivious
by Follow-The-Firefly
Summary: In which Lloyd is to oblivious to understand the signals that Cecile is trying to send him. ONESHOT LloydXCecile rated T for teen.


**Disclaimer: If I owned Code Geass, I think I would have lost my mind long ago.**

**Yo! Zephyr here! I can't believe I've finally finished this one. Maybe it went on for a little bit, but I'm very happy with it. I love the way that Cecile and Lloyd interact in the series and in the fandom and I hope I've gotten that aspect right. Anyway, let the deadly tale begin!  
**

"Cécile, is Suzaku here yet? How can I test the Lancelot 2.0 if its user isn't here?"

Cécile rolled her eyes and turned around to face the man walking into the room. Lloyd always got panicky when he was finishing a new Knightmare design.

"You haven't exactly told him that it's ready, Lloyd." Cécile said as she drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. "And it's not entirely ready yet, anyway."

Lloyd gave her a curious look and said, "What do you mean? It should have been ready weeks ago!"

"I've been having some problems with energy distribution." Cécile answered calmly. "And I thought you still had to install an emergency ejection seat."

"That's the last thing I install." Lloyd explained as he sat down at a computer and started typing.

"But what about the problems with the right arm?" Cécile wondered.

"Come again?" Lloyd frowned.

"The right arm used to short out in the previous tests." Cécile explained. "Did you fix that?"

"Nearly." Lloyd answered.

"Anything else while I'm at it?" Cécile placed her hands on her hips in a stern fashion. "The screens aren't cracked or anything like that?"

"You know I still have other technical problems to work on." Lloyd said stubbornly.

"Then why do you want to have Suzaku test it?" Cécile questioned.

"How else will I know if it works or not?" Lloyd asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Cécile sighed and said, "Okay, but just use the standard testing equipment first. Don't use Suzaku yet."

"Why not?" Lloyd scowled as he went to the fridge and retrieved a pudding cup.

"Because Suzaku is the only one who can pilot the Lancelot, Lloyd." Cécile said, her eyes on Lloyd as he pulled back the wrapper of the pudding.

"Fair point." Lloyd shrugged.

"Do I need to teach you some common sense?" Cécile asked as she typed on a computer keyboard.

"No thanks." Lloyd responded.

"I'm going to see if the energy tank is operational yet." Cécile rose from her chair. "Try not to destroy anything while I'm gone."

"That wasn't my fault, you know." Lloyd glared at his assistant as she walked out of the room.

Cécile rolled her eyes as she reached the storage room where the energy tank was stored. Lloyd really could be ridiculous at times.

She opened the door to the cupboard where the large energy tank was plugged into an outlet in the wall. She unplugged the device and started walking back to the testing room where the Lancelot 2.0 was standing. After hooking up the power cell, Cécile climbed inside the Knightmare and started up the gargantuan mech to see if it had charged completely. Once she learned that the test was a success, Cécile shut down the Lancelot 2.0 and started walking back to the computer room when she bumped into Lloyd.

"And what do you think you're doing, Lloyd?" Cécile raised an eyebrow.

"Well, after I finished eating my pudding," Cécile rolled her eyes at Lloyd's statement ", I decided I'd come and see how you were coming with the repairs."

"Don't you think you should be helping as well?" Cécile questioned, though she knew what the answer would be.

"But you've already finished, haven't you?" Lloyd asked hopefully.

"I swear, Lloyd…" Cécile pinched the bridge of her nose.

"What is it now?" Lloyd looked at Cécile over his glasses.

"Never mind." Cécile sighed.

"You've been acting strangely for a while now, Cécile-kun. What's going-?" Lloyd said before suddenly pulling out his cell phone. "Oh well, would you look at that!"

"What is it now, Lloyd?" Cécile crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Prince Schneizel is calling me!" Lloyd said as he dashed away, leaving a very confused Cécile behind.

* * *

Cécile walked into the break room to find Milly sitting at the table with a pile of homework in front of her. It wasn't unusual for the Ashford Academy student to show up at the lab. Lloyd _was_ her fiancé, after all.

"Waiting for Lloyd, Milly?" Cécile asked as she grabbed a bottle of lemonade from the counter.

"Suzaku, actually." Milly replied. "The student council needs to go over some information for the school festival and we need Suzaku's opinion on the theme." She leaned back in her chair and said, "But he's been so busy that he can't come to the meetings."

"We've been working on a new Knightmare frame." Cécile brushed her hair from her eyes. "It's been a bit crazy in here."

"As opposed to a normal day?" Lloyd asked as he walked into the room, holding a wrench in one hand.

"I don't want to know what you were doing with that…" Cécile shook her head.

"Just working on the Knightmare." Lloyd said with a shrug before turning to Milly and saying, "Aren't you meant to be in school or something like that?"

"I'm waiting for Suzaku so we can go over some information for the school festival." Milly answered.

"Oh, he's just practicing with the first Knightmare frame." Lloyd said as he leaned against the wall.

"Okay, I'll go make sure he isn't doing anything to get himself killed." Milly stood up and walked towards the door. "He's not dying before this festival if I have anything to say about it."

"She's really involved with this, isn't she?" Cécile asked as Milly left the room.

"We should get working on the frame so we can have Suzaku test it." Lloyd said, successfully changing the topic.

"Let me get something to eat first." Cécile said as she headed to the fridge. "I'm starving."

"No!" Lloyd shouted. "Don't open the-"

But it was too late. When Cécile opened the fridge, dozens of cups of pudding came toppling onto the floor, nearly burying her alive. She poked her head out from the mountain of pudding cups and glared at Lloyd.

"Lloyd…" Cécile sounded like she was ready to punch Lloyd in the head.

"I _did_ tell you not to go in the fridge." Lloyd said as he grabbed a cup of lemon pudding from the pile of pudding cups.

"Why is there so much pudding in the fridge?" Cécile asked slowly.

"Because I like pudding?" Lloyd frowned as he pulled back the lid of the pudding. "And did you see how the Knightmare responded to the power cell and the sakuradite?"

"That's a bit random, isn't it?" Cécile frowned as she started putting the pudding cups back in the fridge.

"I want to get us back on topic." Lloyd grabbed a spoon from a drawer by the sink.

"The power cell seems to work fine as a back-up, but it will only hold out for about five hours." Cécile answered. "And you can help clean up the pudding, you know."

"But I'd rather eat it." Lloyd said.

"Ugh, never mind." Cécile rolled her eyes as she finished putting the last of the pudding cups in the fridge.

"Now let's get to work." Lloyd said as he dragged Cécile to the room where the Knightmare 2.0 was stored.

"What are you doing?" Cécile demanded as she broke away from Lloyd's grip.

"We're putting the finishing touches on the Knightmare frame." Lloyd said happily.

"When you say 'finishing touches', you just mean fixing the stuff that you broke." Cécile said as she grabbed a wrench.

"Uh-huh!" Lloyd nodded as he climbed up a ladder to the power units of the frame. "Now let's install the power cell."

"But not the ejection seat?" Cécile raised an eyebrow.

"I told you, that comes last!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"But that makes no sense!" Cécile shouted.

"Oh, just give me the screwdriver." Lloyd sighed.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Cécile said as she handed him the requested tool, her hand brushing against his. "Ah!"

"What's wrong?" Lloyd frowned.

"Nothing!" Cécile said quickly as she tried to stop her face from turning red.

"You're acting strangely, Cécile-kun." Lloyd mused.

"No, I'm not." Cécile shook her head.

Before their argument could continue, Lloyd and Cécile heard music coming from the testing room. It sounded like a pop song, which neither Lloyd nor Cécile listened to.

"_Say you will, say you won't, say you'll do what I don't. Say the truth, say to me C'est La Vie."_

Walking into the testing room, they found Milly dancing to the music that was playing from her iPod with Suzaku standing awkwardly nearby. Milly clearly didn't notice Cécile and Lloyd's entrance, though Suzaku looked helplessly towards the two scientists.

"Uh, Milly?" Cécile asked curiously. "What exactly are you doing?"

"Listening to B*Witched." Milly said, completely unembarrassed.

"Weren't you and Suzaku meant to be talking about the school festival?" Lloyd frowned.

"We talked about that already." Suzaku nodded.

"So you should come back to school, Suzaku." Milly said. "Rivalz is driving me crazy."

"Just tell him to knock it off." Suzaku shrugged. He gestured to Lloyd and said, "I don't think he'll let me leave without testing the Lancelot 2.0 first."

"Now you're starting to understand." Lloyd said.

"Okay, I'll just head back to school and order Lelouch around." Milly said.  
"You seem to do that a lot." Suzaku glanced toward Milly.

"Because he won't do anything otherwise." Milly rolled her eyes before walking away.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Suzaku?" Lloyd demanded. "Get in that frame!"

* * *

Lloyd was sitting in the kitchen eating his afternoon pudding cup when Cécile walked into the room, carrying a large stack of what appeared to be cookbooks. She slammed the books on the table and, after grabbing the first book in the pile, started to flip through the contents.

Lloyd stared hesitantly at Cécile for a few moments. What was she doing? Hopefully she wasn't planning on cooking dinner. Lloyd still felt queasy whenever he remembered the last time Cécile had tried to make food. She had somehow managed to make some kind of pickled fish with onion flavoured fruit salad. Lloyd preferred not to think about how Cécile had managed to put something that mimicked the taste of onions in a fruit salad, but Cécile was so terrible of a cook that he had no doubt that she could accomplish such a feat.

"Cécile-kun?" Lloyd asked cautiously. "What are you doing?"

"I'm having you and Suzaku over for dinner tonight and I'm trying to decide what to make." Cécile said as she flipped a page.

Lloyd tried not to shudder as he said, "Please say you won't be making pickled fish again."

"Oh, don't be silly, Lloyd." Cécile shook her head, but Lloyd wasn't convinced.

"Oh, I just remembered that I'm meant to be somewhere with Milly tonight." Lloyd said in an attempt to get out of the situation.

"No, you don't." Cécilesaid. "I checked your calendar and you didn't have any plans with anyone until next week."

Lloyd internally cursed at himself before he said, "Are you positive, Cécile-kun?"

"I'm quite positive, Lloyd." Cécile closed the book and picked up another one.

"And when are Kururugi-kun and I meant to be at your apartment?" Lloyd admitted defeat.

"Around seven should be fine." Cécile said with a nod.

"Sounds good, Cécile-kun." Lloyd tried not to groan in complaint.

* * *

A few minutes before seven, the doorbell to Cécile's apartment rang. When she opened the door, Cécile found Lloyd and Suzaku standing in the doorway, Suzaku looking rather embarrassed. The teen was wearing his usual attire, but Lloyd had surprisingly dressed for the occasion. He was wearing a pinstripe suit with a dark purple tie and it appeared that he had tried to tame his hair into submission, though he didn't seem to have had much success.

"Wow, you look nice." Cécile said blushingly.

"Why, thank you." Lloyd nodded as he followed Suzaku inside. "I tried to get Suzaku to dress for the occasion, but he claims to have no dress clothes."

"Which I don't." Suzaku chimed in.

"We'll have to fix that, now won't we?" Lloyd said.

"I don't like this idea." Suzaku shook his head violently.

"With Lloyd, you don't get much of a choice." Cécile whispered to Suzaku.

"So what's on the menu today, Cécile-kun?" Lloyd asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"I'm trying a new kind recipe for pasta." Cécile began.

Lloyd and Suzaku blanched. The last time Cécile said that she was trying a new recipe, Lloyd had gotten food poisoning and Suzaku spent the better half of the night in the bathroom trying to stop his stomach from retching its contents. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that Cécile had made poultry, but Suzaku and Lloyd were still hesitant to try any of Cécile's new recipes.

"Pasta, you say?" Lloyd shot a slightly hopeful look at Suzaku.

"Pasta with tomato sauce." Cécile nodded as she stirred something in a pot on the stove. "I've never made it before."

Suzaku grinned in Lloyd's direction, knowing that the scientist was as happy as he was, before he said, "It doesn't sound that complicated."

"I know I'm a terrible cook, so I'll probably do something wrong like burn the pasta." Cécile sighed.

Lloyd opened the pot of pasta and after a quick, but fearful, glance, said, "Cécile-kun, the pasta is ready."

"It is?" Cécile was quite surprised.

"Have you started the sauce?" Lloyd asked hesitantly, fearing that she'd been burning the sauce while carefully tending to the pasta.

"I've been watching it, too." Cécile gestured to the pot that she was stirring.

"That's probably done as well." Suzaku started to get some bowls from the cupboard so he could start to set the table.

"This actually smells good, Cécile-kun." Lloyd said as he started to pour the pasta into a bowl.

"What do you mean by 'actually', Lloyd?" Cécile glowered at the scientist while she poured the pasta into a colander over the sink.

"Hmm?" Lloyd pretended not to hear Cécile.

"Bowls are on the table." Suzaku came back into the kitchen.

"So I'll bring the sauce over." Lloyd carted the pot of sauce over to the dining room table, trying to keep his nose away from the fumes the pot was emitting, as though the sauce had a rather putrid aroma.

"You guys don't have to help, you know." Cécile said. "You're the guests, after all."

"But then Lloyd would start saying that there's nothing to do." Suzaku told Cécile.

"That's true." Cécile said. "He does it all the time in the lab."

"Cécile-kun, is there any shredded cheese for the pasta?" Lloyd asked as he strolled back into the room. "I find cheese and pasta to be very tasty."

"Oh, I already put cheese in the sauce." Cécile said with a nod.

"You have?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow as he walked back into the dining room and glanced at the sauce that he had just carried in. "Pray tell, what _kind_ of cheese, Cécile-kun?"

"It was whatever was in that can." Cécile pointed to an opened can that had a label written in what appeared to be Arabic.

Lloyd picked up the can and, after close examination, said, "Cécile-kun, do you have any idea what these are?"

"Isn't it a type of cheese?" Cécile frowned.

Suzaku had been looking at the can over Lloyd's shoulder and was now snickering. "No, it's not cheese…"

"These are mandarin oranges, Cécile-kun." Lloyd said. "And you put them in the sauce?"

"My friend told me that it was cheese…" Cécile was clearly confused. "I did think it was a bit strange."

"Well, we can just eat pasta." Suzaku suggested. "Lelouch and I eat it a lot when we're in the school council room."

"Why in the world would you eat such a thing?" Lloyd was clearly confused. "You could always eat pudding, Kururugi-kun."

"I'm not like you, Lloyd." Suzaku rolled his eyes as he grabbed

"I can always bring some over." Lloyd offered. "I have a nearly limitless supply of pudding."

"He's not kidding about that." Cécile said as they sat down to eat. "I found so much pudding in his bedroom, it was scary."

"What were you doing in my bedroom, Cécile-kun?" Lloyd frowned.

Cécile flushed and said, "You told me to get something in your room for you."

Lloyd seemed to believe her story and said, "Okay."

"Do you have any garlic bread, Cécile?" Suzaku as he dished out the pasta into the bowls.

"No, the store was all out of garlic bread." Cécile shook her head.

"That's probably for the better. Lloyd said. "I absolutely love garlic bread."

"Yes, I don't think I'll ever forget the time when you had spaghetti without it." Cécile pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"I love my garlic bread, Cécile-kun." Lloyd said simply as he began to eat his pasta.

"I can't take you anywhere, can I?" Cécile sighed.

"Nope." Lloyd responded cheerfully.

"You two are strange" Suzaku stabbed at the pasta with his fork. "You know that, right?"

"That's why I never invite anyone over for parties anymore." Cécile said. She gestured towards Lloyd, who was now carefully examining a bit of pasta with his fork, and said, "I have to watch after this one and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"I don't do stupid things, Cécile-kun." Lloyd retorted. "I'm a genius."

"That doesn't mean that you can't do stupid things." Suzaku said through a mouthful of pasta.

"So how does this taste?" Cécile asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"Honestly?" Lloyd asked. "Terrible. I just figured we'd be nice and eat it."

Cécile sighed and said, "So what's the problem this time? I promise I didn't put fermented soybeans in this one."

"Fermented soybeans?" Suzaku looked at Lloyd. "I'm not sure I want to know."

"Trust me. You don't." Lloyd turned back to Cécile and said, "The pasta tastes like you've added turpentine and a little too much salt."

"Well, I can't imagine why it tastes like turpentine." Cécile frowned.

"I'm sure I don't know." Lloyd shrugged.

"I don't think it's that bad, Lloyd." Suzaku said.

"You're just being nice." Lloyd said.

Cécile sighed and said, "Why do I even bother with you two at all?"

* * *

A few days later, Cécile was sitting alone in the break room of the lab, reading a magazine as she drank a cup of coffee. Lloyd had insisted on finishing up the Knightmare frame by himself and she knew well enough not to get in his way. The results could be catastrophic.

Cécile sighed at the thought of her boss working on the Knightmare frame. She liked Lloyd, of course. She was very fortunate to have him as a superior. But she liked him in a different way and she'd been trying to convey that feeling to him. However, since he could be about as dense as a sheep when it came to social issues, Lloyd failed to understand the signals she was sending him.

She'd just turned on the radio and was listening to _Last Friday Night _when Lloyd walked into the room, holding what Cécile strongly believed to be a flaming torch.

"Lloyd, the idea of you with fire is kinda scary." Cécile said.

"The idea of you listening to pop music is kinda scary too, you know." Lloyd grabbed a cup of lemon pudding from the mini-fridge and joined Cécile on the couch. "Reading a gossip magazine, Cécile-kun?"

"No, it's a music magazine that Suzaku lent me." Cécile shook her head.

"Interesting." Lloyd mused.

"So I have something that I should probably tell you, Lloyd." Cécile closed the magazine.

"Oh?" Lloyd frowned. "You're not pregnant, are you?"

Cécile flushed and said, "N-no, I'm not pregnant."

"Well, that's good to hear." Lloyd said cheerfully. "So what's going on?"

Cécile took a deep breath and said, "I like you, Lloyd."

Lloyd stared at her in confusion for a few seconds before he said, "I like you too, Cécile-kun."

"You do?" Cécile asked anxiously.

"Of course!" Lloyd nodded. "I wouldn't have anyone else for a lab partner."

Cécile sighed, realizing that with Lloyd, this was as good as it was going to get. He was just too oblivious to anything that wasn't related to work.

**So I hope it was enjoyable. I rather enjoy writing for this fandom. :) So that's it for now. I think I have an idea for another CG story, but I have to work out the fine details. Reviews equal love. Thanks for reading!**


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